Posted on 11/11/2006 5:38:22 PM PST by FairOpinion
A commission of experts appointed by President George W Bush will advise him to abandon his dream of cementing a new democratic system in Iraq and instead tackle the security crisis so that the withdrawal of American troops can begin.
The advice from the Iraq Study Group, a high-level bipartisan panel headed by James Baker, the former Republican secretary of state, will sideline the so-called Bush doctrine of spreading democracy in the Middle East. Mr Bush will meet the panel tomorrow and Tony Blair is expected to offer his views via a video-conference call on Tuesday.
Mr Gates is a member of the Iraq Study Group and has been a strong critic of his predecessor's handling of policy in Iraq and the use of pre-war intelligence. He will provide the White House with the political cover for changes that would have been unthinkable a few months ago.
The Baker panel, which has been charged with looking at all options for Iraq, is expected to recommend a phased US troop withdrawal, timed to accord with deadlines for Iraqi forces' taking responsibility for specific security zones.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
But, what does that have to do with the Iraqis NOT BEING ABLE TO control the violence themselves?
Do they need more guns? More armor? More elections?
TELL ME! What do they need?.... more U.S. Troops?
We had 100 U.S. troops killed in action last month. Frankly, I demand to know why the IRAQIS are still ALLOWING this many of our troops to get killed.
That's for sure. I find it difficult to believe there was no voter fraud involved in many of the races. Time will tell.
The misinformation aimed at disheartening conservatives is at a fevered pitch. And the leftist trolls joining hands with our own hate-filled malcontents are doing their part to defeat us right here on FR.
It may be time for me to bow out for a while until sanity returns. The last few days have been disgusting around here.....
I tend to agree with you. I don't think that the Iraqi's should be abandoned BUT when I see able bodied Iraqi's dancing around the remnants of a car bomb, I have to ask myself why in the hell they are not in the military to prevent that attack! During WWII, when our brave men went to another continent to preserve freedom, our women did what they had to do to keep this country productive and to keep production up to support the USA. I am not seeing that in Iraq. If the Iraqi's want a free country, IMHO, they had damned well better start fighting for it.
Yes, it is true that the regular army is generally not permited to enforce civil laws etc., although there have been some exceptions. They are empowered, however, to repel foreign invaders, in fact, that is their ultimate duty.
They would be empowered to repel invaders across our borders whether they are in uniform or not. It is just that the president has never found the nerve to employ them even though it is obvious that the Border Patrol is not capable of repelling the invaders.
I'd be interested to know what battle were we waging at the time for us to lose that many lives? Of course we'll never know from the mainstream media. And on the other side of that how many did we take out?
Your question implies that our soldiers are over their twiddling their thumbs waiting for the Iraqis to begin to fight.
Of course it wouldn't have killed the President-he was in Florida. If it crashed into the Congress, it probably wouldn't have killed more than a handful of either Congressmen or Senators as they are a lot more likely to be in their offices. Either target was largely symbolic. The WTC attacks were intended to kill up to 50,000 people. If that isn't a wake up call we are really dealing with Rip Van Liberal.
In 1877 Reconstruction was declared over, partly because of the white-wash the "redeemers" were able to pull off, but largely because the American people in the north were sick of it. However as soon as the troops left the Blacks were removed from office the KKK came back with a vengeance and lynching started up again. THAT was here in America, we are talking about Iraq. Perhaps the Iraqi police and military forces can be strong enough in 5 or 10 years to deal with the problems of security. But I doubt it. And in any case those problems are going to have to go away of there own accord. That wont happen in 10, and probably wont in 30 years. Which means even if the Iraqi military becomes strong enough to maintain the government, it will be like Israel. Only worse because Iraqis will always be susceptible to the rhetoric of the terrorists themselves unlike the Israelis.
You are blaming the voters for the fecklessness of the politicians. They had to choose from party lists and the guys they chosen owe allegiance to their party leaders, not to a constituency of the people.
I think that is a great point. If things keep going like they have been going (spiraling toward civil war), then only an Iraqi strongman can bring order to Iraq and that strongman will have volumes of useful information to study so as not to make all the mistakes Saddam did that left him in a hole in the dirt and soon to the gallows.
"The misinformation aimed at disheartening conservatives is at a fevered pitch. And the leftist trolls joining hands with our own hate-filled malcontents are doing their part to defeat us right here on FR."
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BINGO! 100% correct. The Dems discovered the winning formula: "divide and conquer" and are putting all their effort into it. This is what helped them win last Tuesday and they are already working on gathering momentum for 2008.
'No one will ever risk siding with American again'
I'm sure that madam pelosi and friends will get us some new playdates soon.
after all, she is going to mend fences and show the world that we really are nice people. Stupid and slow and begging to be overrun by moslems, but nice all the same.
We hug trees and have group gettogethers to mourn the ozone layer.
B.S. Too many on this thread are chest-thumping without thinking things through.
The current nation of Iraq needs to be broken up into three nations....one for Sunnis, one for Shiites, one for Kurds. We can stay there for decades and continue to send our boys home in body bags as we try to educate these Stone Age twerps on 'democracy'.
The people are tribal, largely uneducated, and will always be what they will be as peoples whether we're there or not.
The Iraqi Army and Iraqi Police are really pretty damned effective. Time they took over and we begin to get our people home.
I agree totally with you. The bell has been rung with this election. The troops in Iraq heard it loud and clear, they need to come home as soon as practical because the morale will go downhill from Tuesday forward. Their bravery and respect for authority is unquestioned but if we can not win this thing and I do not believe the American people believe it is winnable, then get out of there now and let the Iraqis manage things as best they can. Who knows, if they know we are leaving, they may actually wake up and try to govern their country. At least, we can hope. Also we might well keep a rather large contingent of troops in the Kurd North to help them defend against an Iranian invasion. They, at least, appreciate what we did and do not plant bombs on the highways to kill our forces.
Your argument is rock solid. Would you care to comment on the following article?
Tracking Covert Actions into the Future
http://mediafilter.org/caq/CovOps.html
Either ALL Humans are entitled to Human Rights or NONE ARE ENTITLED TO HUMAN RIGHTS…IT THEN BECOMES MIGHT EQUALS RIGHTS! And how does that make us better than all others?
Yes, blame the Iraqis, not the terrorists regimes of Iran and Syria, who are responsible for the foreign fighters/terrorists being sent into Iraq to blow up Iraqis.
They most certainly are..........and they are at work on this forum.
I just pray that the vast majority of freepers get out of their funk and see what's happening and start to fight it rather than let themselves get sucked into it.
C'mon people..........THINK!!
Does George Soros pay you well?
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